Comparison of Transportation Hazardous Material Release Incident Reports Submitted to DOT/RSPA's HMIS with Incident Reports Submitted to the States of New Jersey, New York and California.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) receives written reports of releases of hazardous materials that occur during transportation as required in 49 CFR Section 171.16. These regulations require carriers to report within 30 days any incident that results in the unintentional release of a hazardous material or waste during commercial transport. These written reports are transcribed by RSPA into the Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS). The study compares two recent years (1988 and 1989) of HMIS release reports with similar information from three representative states, New Jersey, New York and California. The study addresses the issue of the apparent receipt by state agencies of more reports of hazardous materials releases during transportation than are received by RSPA for the same time period and state